Just like the others in this series, Volume 3 was funny, had deep characters and beautiful art, etc., but I’ve already said all that in the past two reviews, and there’s so many times I can repeat it before everyone stops caring.

So this time I FINALLY get to talk about The Will!

I’ve made it no secret that I love both Marko and The Will as characters. Marko is always great because he’s just an all-around great character and definitely the one I’d rather know in real life.

But The Will is the more fascinating character. He started out as just this big, bad assassin bent on killing the main characters, right? But he’s so much more than that. I know he’s killed who-knows-how-many people, but it’s so easy not to think about that when he’s got all this good in him too. So let me count for you all the ways in which The Will is actually awesome and complex. (There will be some *SPOILERS* for all three volumes, but it’s too difficult to mark each one, so this is your warning.)

1) He seemed to truly love The Stalk. He’s still struggling to get past her death because of how much he loved her. That means he’s not a sociopath with no emotion (which, admittedly, should kind of be a given in people, but it’s a good start).

2) He genuinely cares about Slave Girl/Sophie. Again, this shows he’s capable of caring about and being close to people. It also shows that he does have moral standards and lines that he won’t cross. And he’s so sweet around her! He covered her eyes to shield her from violence in the dream he had (the fact that he did that in his dream is almost even better because that means even his subconscious cared). He told her he was sorry she had to see that when she saw violence in real life. He didn’t blame her for one second when she stabbed him in the neck because he knew it was the poison that made her do it. He’s basically adopted her and given her a name and everything. And he’s just so much softer and less gruff around her.

3) He risked his life to save Lying Cat when the ship was hit. Also, it was revealed at some point that Lying Cat was the runt of her litter, yet The Will clearly didn’t care about that and loves her just the same.

4) In the very first volume, when he found out the creature he killed was just an audition to see how he could perform, he was upset that the woman would waste such a “beautiful creature” on an audition. So he values all forms of life and doesn’t like to kill for no reason (ok, killing for money isn’t exactly a good reason, but at least it’s something, and maybe he really believes the people deserve it).

5) He’s never once been disrespectful to Gwen. I know that should also be a given, that people be respectful, but you know it never is. Yes, he kissed her that one time, but he honestly thought she wanted to kiss. And when she punched him, he didn’t get mad because he knew he deserved it when he realized she didn’t want that.

6) He’s got a sense of humor.

“Just a moment, and I’ll transfer you to my claims adjustment supervisor. Your name again?”

“The Will. As in losing mine to live.”

So yeah, I just think he just has a lot going on in his mind, a lot of depth and complexity that we don’t even get to see. And that’s why I like him.

Overall though, this whole series has been consistently great so far.